Fic: One Armed Lunch (Numb3rs, Charlie Eppes / Colby Granger, Don Eppes / Martin)
Title: One Armed Lunch
Fandom: Numb3rs
Pair: Charlie Eppes / Colby Granger,
Don Eppes / Martin Fridegord
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Not mine, etc.
Feedback: Always Welcome
NUMB3RS Main List
“Eppes.”
“Hey, bro.” Charlie greeted.
“It’s six in the morning, why are you calling?”
“Helen woke me up and I couldn’t go back to sleep again. I thought Martin would be awake anyway.”
“He is, he just kicked me out of the bathroom.”
“Why?”
“Apparently I was too eager to help him shaving and I nicked his throat.”
“How badly?”
“Nothing serious, just a lot of blood.”
“Anyway…. Are you two planning anything for today?”
“Yeah, I have to stop by at the office, they called me yesterday.”
“I thought you were suppose to be off for the whole week.”
“I am, but they had some problems with my paperwork, and they need to settle it before they send it to the DA.”
“I’ve seen some of your reports and-”
“Don’t say it.”
“It looked like those papers our old English teacher used to bitch about.”
“She didn’t bitch about it, she was a bitch. Two totally different things.”
“I’m not arguing about that. When are you going?”
“After ten. It’ll probably take few hours.”
“And Colby’s going to work in half an hour. I was thinking I could take Martin out for lunch. I don’t have my normal lessons for two weeks, thanks to one over-eager busybody….”
“What does that mean?”
“Need to know basis, Don, and you don’t need to know. I can pick him up from your place and then drive him back again. Ask him and call me back.”
“Okay, bye.”
“Bye.”
“Who was that?” Martin came from the bedroom wearing his boxers and an uncomfortable expression. He was cradling his cast against his chest.
“Charlie wants to know if you wanna go have lunch with him.”
“While you’re gone? Sounds good.”
“You need help with something?”
“Yeah.” Martin sighed and looked uncomfortable. “I can’t get my clothes on.”
“You got them on yesterday, in the hospital.” Don wondered but followed him back to the bedroom.
“That was before the pain meds wore off. Now every move hurts and my ribs too.”
“Didn’t you take your meds yet?”
“I did, but they gave me some milder stuff, to make sure it’s safe for home use. Right now I would give my good hand and your head for some morphine.”
---------------------------------------------------
“That was good.” Martin sighed and swallowed the last spoonful of his desert. “Except the part where you had to cut my steak for me.”
“At least I didn’t need to play “This little piggy went to the Market” to get you to eat it.” Charlie grinned and swallowed a piece of his lemon meringue. “This is kinda funny.”
“What is?”
“How things turned out.”
“With us?”
“Yeah. When we broke up, did you think we would end up like this?”
“No, but I`m happy with the way we ended up.”
“Me too. But the whole scenario is pretty unusual." Charlie stated and moved on to his coffee. “We broke up, I find myself a sexy, sweet ex-soldier, who has the best tush of the L.A. office. And then you hook up with my emotionally detached man-whore of a brother, and turn him into a lapdog.”
“You have some really colourful descriptions.”
“Thanks. But the main message was that everything turned out for the best.”
“Yeah.” Martin agreed and tried to settle his cast into a more comfortable position in his lap. He gave Charlie a tender look. “You know…. after we broke up….”
“Yeah?”
“If you had told me you wanted to try again, I would have come running.”
“But not now?” Charlie chuckled.
“I still love you. But I wouldn’t leave Don for you.”
“Good. Because I love you too, but I wouldn’t leave Colby for you.”
“I know.”
Charlie’s phone beeped and he checked the message. “Liza wants to remind me that she has a lecture at three, I need to pick up Helen before two thirty.”
“We still got two hours.”
“Yeah, no hurry.” Charlie pocketed his phone. “Have you and Don thought about it?”
“About what?”
“Kids.”
“We haven’t talked about it, but we have the same views on that.”
“What kinda views?”
“We both love kids as long as they’re some else’s.”
“What about your parents? Aren’t they demanding grandkids?”
“Are you kidding?” Martin laughed. “Three of my sisters have kids, so they have their hands full with the grandma and grandpa duties. Besides, kids wouldn’t really go with our lifestyle.”
“What do you mean?”
“Think about it. We both have our jobs, I’m constantly travelling, Don can be called in at any minute. And we both like it that way.”
“So you’re not gonna knock him up anytime soon?”
“Can you imagine him in his tac-gear with a baby bump?”
“I can….. He’s been developing bit of a pooch lately. You’ve been feeding him too well.” Charlie giggled. “But yeah, I kinda know what you mean.” He took a napkin from the table and started fiddling with it.
“Something wrong?”
“No. Can I say something and then you’ll forget I ever said it?”
“Why should I forget it?”
“Because it’s so mushy that I’ll never admit I said it.”
“Okay, shoot.”
“I’m happy that Don is happy…. But I’m really happy that he’s happy with you and not somebody else.”
“That’s nicely put. Thank you.”
“I mean it. You’re good for him.” Charlie turned quiet for a minute. “He’s a lot more fragile than he looks. And he needs other people to keep him on tracks, and make sure he takes care of himself.”
“I know.”
“It’s….. I guess it was a good thing it didn’t work out with the two of us.”
“Yeah. We’re better off as friends.”
“That’s a horrible cliché, isn’t it?” Charlie chuckled.
“It is, but you’re the one who wanted to talk girly stuff.”
“Do we need to compensate for that somehow?”
“Sure.” Martin sipped the last of his coffee. “We can talk about baseball when you drive me back.”